1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an capsule-type medical apparatus that houses a wiring board, on which a functional circuit is mounted, in a sealed container. The capsule-type medical apparatus performs a predetermined function by driving of the functional circuit while the capsule-type medical apparatus is put in a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
A capsule-type medical apparatus, which has a capsule-like shape and is capable of acquiring information such as a pH value and a temperature inside a subject, makes an appearance in recent years. In a field of endoscope, the capsule endoscope is now attracting attention together with a conventional endoscope, for the reason that the capsule endoscope can relieve suffering of a subject, for example.
The capsule endoscope houses, for example, a power supply 3 and a wiring board 2 consisting of a functional circuit inside a capsule-shaped sealed container 1 in order to acquire image data inside a body cavity while the capsule endoscope is inserted into the body cavity of the subject, as shown in FIG. 20. The sealed container 1 is provided with a container main body 1a having a cylindrical shape and having a bottom, as well as provided with a front cover 1b formed of an optical material. The sealed container is configured by attaching the front cover 1b to a distal end of the container main body 1a while keeping a desired water-tightness therebetween, after housing the wiring board 2 and the power supply 3 inside the container main body 1a. The sealed container 1 has a size swallowable by a human being, and both ends thereof are each formed in semi-spherical shape. Various functional parts and electronic parts such as an illumination unit 4, a lens unit 5, an imaging element 6, and a radio transmission unit 7 are mounted on the wiring board 2 to form the functional circuit described above.
In order to use the capsule endoscope, the capsule endoscope is swallowed by the subject while the power supply 3 is turned on. When the capsule endoscope is inserted into the body cavity of the subject, the illumination unit 4 illuminates the inside of the subject body such as an observed region of stomach, small intestine, and large intestine with an illuminating light through the front cover 1b until the capsule endoscope is discharged from the subject body. Then, an image is formed on an imaging element 6 through the lens unit 5 by an incident reflective light through the front cover 1b. Consequently, the image formed on the imaging element 6 by the reflective light is output as an image signal. Further, the image signal output from the imaging element 6 is radio transmitted outside by the radio transmission unit 7, and a receiver arranged outside the subject body receives the image data, thereby allowing for observation of the data (for example, see JP-A 2001-91860 (KOKAI) and International Publication WO 02/102224).
In the capsule endoscope described above, a plurality of circular circuit board sections 2a and a strip-shaped connection strip board section 2b that is arranged between the circular circuit board sections 2a, which are integrally formed, constitute the wiring board 2 as shown in FIG. 21. The functional parts and the electronic parts are effectively housed in the sealed container 1 by housing the circular circuit board sections 2a and the connection strip board section 2b in the sealed container 1 while folding the connection strip board section 2b so that the circular circuit board sections 2a are located in parallel with each other.
However, it is difficult to fix a position to be folded on the wiring board 2 consisting of the circular circuit board sections 2a and the connection strip board sections 2b which are integrally formed. For example, the connection strip board section 2b may be folded at a position apart from the circular circuit board section 2a, or the connection strip board section 2b may be folded obliquely with respect to a tangential direction of the circular circuit board section 2a. 
An outside dimension of the wiring board 2 folded at the position apart from the circular circuit board section 2a or folded obliquely with respect to the tangential direction of the circular circuit board section 2a may become larger than the inner diameter of the sealed container 1, so that assembly operation such as insertion of the circuit board 2 into the sealed container 1 becomes complicated. As a matter of course, if the sealed container 1 is sufficiently-large, then the inconvenience described above can be avoided. However, it becomes complicated to insert the large sealed container 1 into the subject body. Such inconvenience, but not limited to the capsule endoscope, is common for various capsule-type medical apparatuses.